LOS ANGELES, March 25 (Ticker) -- Despite having a tougher time than expected, the San Antonio Spurs won their 13th straight game and clinched a playoff berth.

Tim Duncan had 33 points and 13 rebounds as San Antonio opened a four-game West Coast road trip with a 91-85 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

David Robinson scored 19 points and Bruce Bowen added 12 as the Spurs moved a half-game ahead of idle Dallas into sole possession of first place in the Midwest Division. They are one game away from the top seed in the Western Conference.

"All of these games are important to us," Robinson said. "We've clinched a playoff spot, but we want to keep our streak going. We have room to improve and I think we're going to do it. For right now, all the guys are stepping up. We've got good balance."

NBA TV highlights from Spurs-Clippers: 56k | 300k The Spurs needed all of Tim Duncan's 33 points and 13 rebounds to grab the win. Catherine Steenkeste/NBAE/Getty Images

San Antonio is riding its longest winning streak since a franchise-record 17-game tear from Feb. 29-March 31, 1996.

Winners of six in a row on the road, the Spurs improved to 30-11 against Western Conference foes, going 14-6 away from home.

"We're starting to believe in what we are doing," Duncan said. "We're really playing with a lot of confidence. We're defending well and these are games we need to win to keep our streak going."

Los Angeles squandered a chance to gain ground in the race to make the playoffs. Eighth-place Utah lost, but the Clippers blew a 13-point second-half lead and were outscored in the fourth quarter, 24-13.

"I thought we deserved to win," Los Angeles coach Alvin Gentry said. "I thought that we played hard enough to win. I'm not upset that we lost, I have no complaints with the way we played. I told them that I am proud of them because they did what they were asked to do. That's all we always tell our guys, and that's what they did."

Michael Olowokandi, Los Angeles' inconsistent center, responded to the challenge of playing against Robinson and Duncan and produced 26 points, 17 rebounds and three assists.

"I feel somewhat dejected," Olowokandi said. "It was a situation where we played about as well as we could possibly play."

"I thought Olowokandi was incredible tonight," Duncan said. "He was definitely all over the floor. He really kept us honest down there and really made it a game."

But the Clippers remained 2 1/2 games behind the Jazz for the final postseason berth in the West. They have dropped 17 of the last 18 meetings with the Spurs, including eight in a row in Los Angeles.

Elton Brand had 15 points and 10 rebounds to become just the third player in Clippers' history to register 50 double-doubles in a season, joining Michael Cage (52 in 1986-87) and Swen Nater (54 in 1980-81, 52 in 1979-80).

Los Angeles used a 13-4 run at the start of the third quarter to take a 62-49 advantage with 8:06 left.

The Spurs closed the deficit to five points at the end of the period and went on an 8-2 spurt to gain their first lead since a 36-35 advantage midway through the first quarter. Duncan scored all of San Antonio's points in the run and opened a 75-74 lead with a 13-foot jumper with 8:25 left.

The lead changed hands seven times in the next four minutes and 19 times overall. Jeff McInnis put the Clippers on top for the last time, 82-81, with four minutes to go, but Robinson answered with a dunk and free throw with 3:21 left and Bowen made 1-of-2 free throws and Danny Ferry hit two from the line against his former team to make it 87-82.

"We knew the Clips were going to come out really tough," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "They played great in the first half and we really had to dig in deep to get the aggressiveness back to compete in this game. I was really pleased with our club in the second half."

Eric Piatkowski drained a 3-pointer to pull the Clippers within two points with two minutes remaining. However, Robinson dunked on an alley-oop feed from Duncan, who made a free throw. Tony Parker also scored from the line for the final margin.

"This was a scrappy game," Duncan said. "They came out with a lot of energy. They really pushed it at us. We did a great job and stayed with it and kept grinding away and found a way to win. We started to get some rhythm (in the fourth quarter). I thought we really were really good defensively and rebounded well, too."

The Clippers shot 26 percent (6-of-23) from the field in the fourth quarter while the Spurs connected at 47 percent (8-of-17).

"It's a tough loss for us," said McInnis, who scored 14 points on 6-of-16 shooting. "What can we do? Keep playing. ... We had control the whole game. We just have to keep playing. We can't let things like that get us down. It does hurt because we work hard."

Malik Rose contributed nine points and Ferry grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists for the Spurs, who shot 46 percent and were outrebounded, 45-39.

Piatkowski finished with 13 points and Darius Miles, whose status was questionable due to a sore left knee, chipped in six and six rebounds in 33 minutes.